


Do you still believe in love I wonder

by becauseitwasreal



Series: Game of Thrones oneshots [1]
Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Bronn is a good friend, Jaime needs a hug, Jaime reflects on Things, and probably a bit OC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-01
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-06-20 02:28:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15524079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/becauseitwasreal/pseuds/becauseitwasreal
Summary: In which Jaime is not as alone as he thinks, and Bronn still doesn't get a castle [post-S7 oneshot]





	Do you still believe in love I wonder

**Author's Note:**

> "Hey brother  
> Do you still believe in one another?  
> Hey sister  
> Do you still believe in love? I wonder" - Avicii
> 
> [I own nothing]

He didn’t look back as he rode away from the castle, away from the place that had always felt like home, even if it was simply because _she_ was there. Wherever he went, he had always returned to this place, to her – even defying the greatest odds. Even now, when she had so clearly refused him, now she had laid bare how little she truly cared for him, he couldn’t bring himself to believe it had _all_ been a lie. Her sweet words when they were little more than teenagers, her touches when they were able to steal a moment after she’d been married off like a piece of cattle – it must have meant something, at least then. He wondered where they went wrong.

Jaime halted Honour as he put the glove over his golden hand. it was more of a burden than anything else. He couldn’t use it, not really, and it was heavy on his wrist. Still, it was a reminder of his family, a reminder of what he came from. Perhaps this was where he went wrong. He remembered her harsh words that day. Perhaps he hadn’t been there enough. Perhaps it was his fault that his sister had turned into the woman she was today. He sighed. Perhaps Lady Olenna had been right after all.

A single snowflake fell on his gloved not-hand, and he looked up to the sky. He could almost see Ned Stark throw him a self-satisfied smirk from beyond the grave. Winter was truly coming, and it seemed as if his house wasn’t as dead as they had all believed it to be. Brienne would be pleased. The two Stark daughters, safe and sound at home. He wondered what they would do to him if he were to ever reach the North at all. What they were to do if he would arrive to tell them that his sister’s promises were bare, and that he was the only one who had come. They’d lock him up, they’d kill him. They probably didn’t even know that he was the one who had crippled Winterfell’s heir, but he’d still done enough. They’d never trust him. He couldn’t go to Winterfell, yet it was the only choice he had. No way back, no way forward. Cersei had been right on that account, as his father had been for all those years. He was truly the stupidest Lannister.

 _We are the only ones who matter, the only ones in this world. And everything they’ve taken from us we’re going to take back and more. We’re going to take everything there is._ Turns out the only one who was going to do the taking was _her_. Her and their unborn child. She had so easily traded him for the babe in her belly. She didn’t even have to think about it. Was it the Lannister name that mattered to her? Their house? It sounded like a priority his father would have had. Cersei had always been the one who was most like father, even if her love for her children was the one quality he didn’t quite share with her. He wondered if Cersei could have loved a son like Tyrion. She had never been able to understand his care for his brother, she had never been able to understand that he was a part of her family too, just like their father hadn’t been. Yet she had loved Joffrey unconditionally. She had always loved her children more than she had loved him, and he’d understood that. He understood it, even though it wasn’t necessarily a sentiment he’d shared. It wasn’t until Myrcella – until he saw her in Dorne that he had truly felt like a father. Cersei had shielded them from the world well enough, and he felt like he’d never known any of them. Not Tommen, and certainly not Joffrey. He saw them, and their paths crossed, but he was never in their life. Sometimes he had felt like Tyrion knew his children better than he knew them himself. He had been too scared. Too scared they’d figure it out, too scared that others would figure it out. If only he’d been a little less scared…

“Did you really think you could just fuck off without me?” Bronn rode up next to Jaime, and looked up to the sky. “Weather’s really shit for riding.”

Jaime sighed. “What are you doing here, Bronn?”

“You still owe me a castle.”

“My sister’s the one who’s got the Iron Bank on her side. I don’t have a penny. I mean, you could have Casterly Rock for all I care. It won’t stand long if the dead reach it.”

“Podrick told me about that, yes. Dreadful story.”  
“I saw it with my own eyes. It’s not a story.”

“So that’s why you decided to ride for the North all by your lonesome?”

“I made a promise.”

“It won’t be the first vow you’ve broken.”

Jaime gave Bronn a pointed look. “I’ve always done what I thought was best for the people I care about. For my family. Cersei might not think so, but it’s true. I’ve just been failing for a very long time.”

“Looks like me you’ve just been trying to do what’s best for her.”

“She’s my family too. And more than that.”

“And yet here you are, leaving her behind.”

Jaime gave the reigns a small tug, and Honour started walking again. “Are you here to question my decisions, or are you here to help?”

“I’d be the last to question your decisions. You’re the heir, and you are technically the one with the money, so –”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. If it’s money you want, I’m not the person you need to go to. You’re better off with my sister. I’m too _stupid_ to manage that sort of stuff anyway.”

“Aye, you’re a stupid cunt. You do stupid, brave things and are likely to get yourself killed. But at least you’re not insane. I’d take you over your sister any day of the week, Jaime Lannister. I’m not looking forward to fighting the dead, and if there was anyone else in that castle I might have just stayed in King’s Landing. But your sister set the entire Sept ablaze, and let’s face it, without me you’re going to get yourself killed, if not simply by going North, then by fighting an army of the dead, which you’re still shit at, by the way. I mean the fighting in general, not just fighting the dead.”

“I don’t know, they die if you burn them, I think I can manage that.”

“Maybe,” Bronn said, as unconvinced as Jaime felt. “My point is, I can hardly let you go alone, can I?”

“One might almost start to think you cared,” Jaime said, a small smile around his lips at the oddly touching words. It was nice to know that someone cared, even if that someone wasn’t Cersei. “My knight in shining armour.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Bronn said, but he was smiling too. “Now,” he said, spurring on his horse, “let’s get ourselves killed.”


End file.
